DVR subscription company wants to get into the TV metrics reporting business. It will begin offering data on both the programming and commercial viewing habits of its subscribtion base, data that would cover both live and time-shifted viewing. The new service, dubbed StopWatch, would provide second-by-second viewing data, something Nielsen has refused to do, likely because it hasn't figured out how to. Starcom has signed on as the first subscriber to TiVo's data. One final note to the ad executive who wonders about whether or not information such as this is "projectable." It's 2007. Nothing is really projectable because new things are vying every 15 minutes for the attention of your consumer. And with the proliferation of choice your audience is fragmenting. The problem, though, is that TV ad buying is still done mostly on guesses and instincts, before the shows actually hit airwaves. If the system were reversed, and advertisers were charged based on the actual performance of the show containing their ad and the ad itself, the world would be a very different place.
